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Tesla cars go Android

By Staff, Relaxnews

Updated:
10/24/2013 09:15:06 AM EDT

Tesla Model S 17-inch touch screen. (Tesla)

The company is often seen as the Apple of car makers so Elon Musk's decision to update the current flagship Model S with a Google Chrome web browser and Android emulating operating system (OS) could surprise some.

The company's CEO made the announcement at a special Tesla event in Munich, Germany this week, but pointed out that the changes will not happen overnight. So, from late next year Tesla customers will be able to access the internet in-car via Google's Chrome, and the informatics platform will be fully Android-compatible — it currently runs a version of Linux that can support modified Android and iOS apps — meaning that it will be easy for developers to write Tesla-specific apps or to port existing Android apps to run on the car's software systems.

As well as being the pure electric vehicle with the longest range on a single battery charge currently in production, the Tesla Model S also has the largest touchscreen interface of any road car. The 17-inch system not only offers an online connection and access to the vehicle's navigation system, but also replaces many of the analogue switches and dials — for features such as air conditioning — that litter most vehicle cabins. However creating something that takes full advantage of a display more than twice the size of the average tablet could take some doing on the part of Android app developers — Apple CEO Tim Cook has described most tablet apps on Google Play as simply stretched smartphone apps.

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At the Munich event, Musk also stressed that Germany is the company's top European focus (Musk wants to sell more Teslas in Germany than he has in the U.S.) and the country's first six supercharger locations will be officially revealed on Thursday. He also revealed that the Model S will be getting a retro-fitted power upgrade so that it can keep up with other cars on the speed limitless Autobahn and that by the end of 2014 there will be 30-40 supercharging stations up and running.